Coker also went on to say that they were hoping to stage the event "late first quarter." When asked about March, Coker said, "That's the month that we're shooting for."

Cormier and Barnett will meet for a five-round war for the vacant Strikeforce heavyweight belt.

The end of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix is now super close after beginning in February of this year. Names like Fedor Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski and Fabricio Werdum have all fallen.

Now the finals will pit one of the early dark-horse candidates and a guy who at this time last year was facing relative nobodies.

On Inside MMA, Cormier said he wasn't wasting any time in preparing for a veteran like Barnett.

"For a guy like Josh Barnett, for me not to be working hard for him at this point, trying to do a basic seven to 10 week camp is disrespectful to him, and it doesn't give me the best opportunity to win the fight," Cormier said.